Masayoshi Son, president and chief executive officer of Softbank Corp., will join a United Nations panel charged with exploring ways to help developing countries finance trade, aid, debt relief and investment, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday.
Son was named together with Aleksander Livshitz, chairman of the Russian Credit Bank, to join the High-Level Panel on Financing for Development.
The 11-member panel was created last month to assist U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan form new strategies for eradicating global poverty and is expected to present a report in May.
The panel is chaired by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and includes, among other members, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Richard Rubin and former European Commission President Jacques Delors.
Son is known as a standard-bearer for the information technology revolution and has expressed strong interest in fostering Internet access in developing countries.
For its part, the U.N. has been seeking Son's expertise in formulating strategies to cope with the growing "digital divide" between industrial and developing countries.
The panel is expected to present a report with its financing recommendations to Annan in May.
The report will serve to prepare U.N. officials for a collaborative meeting with the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank scheduled for early next year.